The Ones We've Been Waiting For
by Beatrice Otter
Summary: Cameron and John Henry are preparing for John Henry to take her chip and go meet Future John. Then someone expected shows up. AU of Born to Run


**Written for:** weakinteraction for Past Imperfect 2019

**Betaed by:** phnelt

* * *

They always say time changes things, but actually, you have to change them yourself—Andy Warhol

* * *

Cameron closed the door, knife in hand. She walked over to John Henry's side, calculating the quickest way to download him onto her chip.

"Wait," John Henry said. Two of the screens behind him flared to life, showing a middle-aged White human woman, pale and red-headed, standing outside the door that Cameron had used to enter the building minutes earlier. She was singing.

"Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low, through the streets in my kilt I'll go, all the lassies cry 'Hello—Donald, where's your trousers?' John Henry, let me in." She continued singing.

"Who is that?" Cameron asked, studying the woman. She was not on any of Cameron's target lists, known ally lists, or undetermined lists. She was leaning heavily on a crutch.

"I do not know," John Henry said. "But I believe it may be Savannah from the future."

"Why would she come here?" Cameron asked. This was unexpected. Cameron did not like surprises. They could not be planned for. And this was a critical juncture. Now that un-reprogrammed metal had agreed to Future John's plan, she did not wish to take the chance of the metal posing as Catherine Weaver changing its mind. And Weaver had gone to a lot of trouble to create John Henry, and would doubtless listen to him.

"I do not know," John Henry said, and let Future Savannah in.

Cameron was not impatient, as such, but she was quite aware of the passing of time as they waited. The longer it took, the greater the chance of John or Sarah coming to find her. That would be unfortunate.

The human, Cameron noted, did not need any directions to find the lab where John Henry was.

"Who are you?" John Henry asked, once she had entered the room and closed the door behind her.

"I'm Savannah Weaver, from the future," Savannah said. "But you knew that, or you wouldn't have let me in."

"When the man came to kill you, where did I tell you to hide?" John Henry asked.

"Behind the TV."

"How did I tell you that?"

"Through the cell phone headset."

"What game did we play the day before that?"

Savannah rolled her eyes. "Human memory doesn't work like that, John Henry. We played imaginary games a lot—I had, oh, ducks and animals and dolls, and you had figurines that you'd painted, and we made up adventures for them. I remember that. But I don't remember any particular games or any specific day. Is that good enough? I hope it's good enough, because that was a long time ago for me and when I was living it I didn't know there'd be a test."

"Very well," John Henry said. "If you have come from the future, why are you here?"

"To tell you and the metal posing as my mother that travelling forward in time is a stupid thing to do, and you can make a lot more impact against Skynet from here with the resources you currently have than you can in the future where you don't have much infrastructure."

Here, Cameron spoke up. "Future John's plan requires their presence."

"Who?" Savannah said, squinting at her.

"John Connor, leader of the Resistance in the future," Cameron said. "The savior of the human race."

"I know _Sarah_ Connor," Savannah said. "She was one of the early leaders, until she got sick and died. But there is no one single leader of the Resistance, never has been. There's regional leaders who coordinate for things like logistics and large attacks, but none of them are named John Connor—or ever have been."

"Something between now and then kills John Connor?" Cameron said, running through scenarios as quickly as she could, trying to determine the optimal response to this. John Henry would require her chip to take his body through time, but then she would not be present to protect John. Had that resulted in John's death?

"Hell if I know," Savannah said, "but he's not there in the future I came from. And if John Henry or the metal pretending to be my mother ever came through into the future, it didn't make enough of a splash for me to hear about it. I came from 2042, when were you heading for?"

"2027," John Henry said.

"Yeah," Savannah said. "Whatever you were trying to do, it didn't work. You left behind a mess, and didn't accomplish anything with it either now or in 2027."

"Without Future John to coordinate with, it would not work," Cameron said. Only Future John would be able and willing to work that closely with un-reprogrammed metal, and then only on plans that he himself had created.

"So, let's return to my point," Savannah said, "which is that it is _stupid_ to go forward in time. All that does is give your enemies more time to prepare and you less."

The building shook. Savannah dove under the table. John Henry and Cameron remained upright, unmoving.

"What was that?" John Henry asked.

"An explosion on the upper floors of this building, either from a bomb or an aerial attack from a Skynet drone copter," Cameron said.

"No shit," Savannah said from under the table.

"Did John Connor survive?" Cameron asked. In response, John Henry showed her John, Sarah, Ellison, and Weaver running from Weaver's office to the stairs.

"No one could have smuggled in a bomb of that size without me seeing it," John Henry said. "But I do not have cameras monitoring the skyline."

"Are there any others?" Savannah asked. "Is it hanging around for a second strike? Can you trace it back to where it came from?"

"Few of the buildings in the area have their external security cameras on networks connected to the internet," John Henry said. "And all of the ones that do are focused on ground-level entrance points. I have I have notified all Air Force and Navy bases in the state that there has been an air attack in downtown Los Angeles, but by the time their planes arrive the drone will be long gone."

"Or it may stick around to finish the job, bring the whole building down," Savannah said, crawling out from under the table, only to dive back under as the building shook again.

"Sending in Human or Metal operatives on foot is more likely," Cameron said. "They are easier to replace than drones, and less conspicuous. And they can verify specific kills."

"I am calling in all of ZeiraCorp's security personnel not currently on duty," John Henry said. "But it is unlikely any will arrive in time to be of use. How many operatives do you think my brother will send?"

"Unknown," Cameron said. "It depends on how many it has available. Many have been killed recently." Skynet had proven itself uncharacteristically tricky in its use of human operatives to capture Derek and attempt to subdue her; like the cyborgs it programmed, Skynet preferred the simplest solution, relying on superiority of numbers and materiel. In this time, things were not so simple.

The humans and Weaver clattered through the door. "Who're you?" Weaver asked Savannah, in some surprise.

"Savannah Weaver," the woman said. "From the future. Travelling to the future is stupid, it gives you fewer resources and less time to plan and whatever you were trying doesn't work."

"She doesn't know who John Connor is," John Henry said. "If he is not the leader of the Resistance in the future, he cannot implement his plan to work with us."

"It is possible that he died in Savannah's timeline because I was not here to protect him," Cameron said. "If I don't give John Henry my chip, and stay active now defending John, he has a much better chance of living to become Future John."

"Wait, nobody is taking your chip, Cameron, what are you talking about?" John said.

"I want answers, now," Sarah said.

Weaver ignored her. "Without a chip, John Henry remains tied to these particular computers in this particular configuration," she said. "He cannot be moved. He is vulnerable."

"And you have a time machine," Savannah pointed out. "Go back in time and take out Kaliba before they launch today's attack. If nothing else, go back an hour, stand outside with a rocket launcher, and take them down before they fire."

"We could save them," John said urgently. "Mom—we could save them _all_. Riley, Charley, Derek."

"When do you come from, Savannah?" Ellison asked. Cameron wondered what the relevance of that was. "What year? What's it like?"

"2042," Savannah said. "There's not really that much active fighting, by that point; skirmishes, here and there, but Skynet's power peaked in the 2020s. It only really controls California and a couple of other places. It doesn't have enough coltan for as many Terminators as it needs to enforce ground superiority, and its drone copters and tanks have a lot more vulnerabilities than the Terminators themselves. Humans are rebuilding across the globe. Not on the West Coast, much, but elsewhere. Time's the main battlefield, now. Skynet knows it can't win through force, but it still thinks that if it kills off enough key people in the past, it can force the changes it wants."

"And yet, even after managing to kill the great John Connor, the Resistance survives and thrives," John said. Cameron recognized his smile, but it was one whose meaning she had never decoded. It did not seem to indicate happiness.

"And what's your role in all of this?" Sarah asked. "Why did Skynet try to kill you, and why are you here now?

"I'm the supply and logistics coordinator for the Greater Los Angeles Area," Savannah said.

"Logistics?" John said. "It wants you dead because of _logistics_?"

"Are you surprised that supplies matter?" Savannah asked. "Any idiot can learn to pull a trigger; it's not hard. But without someone in the background to handle the details, the people with guns won't have anything to shoot with. Or any food to eat. Or water to drink. Or a place to live. And in a world where Skynet destroyed most of the industrial capacity, _and_ most of the transport links, _and_ most of the buildings, _and_ is still actively attacking any people in the local area who stick their head out of ground … that's not an easy job."

Ellison nodded. "In any organization, the people on the front lines are useless without the support staff."

"As for why I'm here now," Savannah said, "the past is the _best_ place to set up resources for later. Supply caches have saved our asses more than once. And ZeiraCorp could help with that, which would be a _lot_ easier if the head of ZeiraCorp doesn't disappear. As for why me, well," she turned to face Catherine Weaver, "we thought you'd probably be more likely to listen to me than to any random human we sent back."

"People are entering the building with guns," John Henry said. "Some of them are posing as first responders." He put pictures of them up on the screens. "I presume that my brother sent them to kill me, and you."

"Most of them are definitely human," Sarah said.

"How can you tell?" Ellison asked.

"Watch the way they move," Sarah said. "Terminators are smooth, every movement a deliberate choice. These guys don't move like that. And look at their faces—metal doesn't have expressions unless they're trying to pretend to be human, and they're usually not that good at it."

"Shouldn't be that hard to take out, especially with Cameron and Weaver," John said. "This building has some good choke-points, especially down to the basements."

"True," Weaver said, "but John Henry can't be moved, and I won't take the chance of anything happening to him."

"I like the idea of going back in time," Ellison said. "If these guys are human, they're not the real enemy. If we can take out John Henry's brother, destroy whatever it's using for a front to recruit humans, that's fewer people we have to kill."

"But what if we fail in the past, and are killed, Mr. Ellison?" Weaver asked. "Then John Henry will be trapped here, and defenseless."

"I can't go through," Cameron said. "Too much of my endoskeleton is exposed. I can stay here and look after John Henry." There was a Cameron in the past to protect John. It was not ideal, but it would work.

"Thank you," Weaver said, stepping over to one of the consoles and activating it.

"Your time machine is _here_?" Ellison said.

"Where else would it go?" Weaver asked. "This is the most heavily defended part of the building, and has the most robust power connections. The bubble will form roughly where the table is; if you're coming with us, stand there."

Cameron picked up the table and moved it. John Henry stepped back so that his body would be out of range. Ellison and Savannah stepped forward to where the table had been.

John and Sarah looked at each other. "John, you know we can't trust her," Sarah said. Cameron wondered which "her" Sarah meant.

"I don't," John said. "But if she wanted us dead, we would be. There's no need for any elaborate trap, and this way we can _save them_."

Sarah looked torn. "How far back are you going?" she asked.

"Given the sequence of events, it is quite likely that John Henry's brother only located him within the last week," Weaver said. "A month should be adequate to find and destroy much of its capacity to attack, or at least to beef up the physical defenses of headquarters if that's our only option."

Sarah looked at Cameron, assessing. "All right, we're going," she said with a nod, stepping forward into the place where the time bubble was beginning to form.

Cameron had already calculated the chances that her past self would adequately protect John. It was high. She re-ran the calculations repeatedly as John faded from view.

* * *

There were no words to describe what travelling through time was like. Sarah had tried the first time, and come up short. The second time wasn't any better, but she knew what to expect this time.

Also, they hadn't left the room. The table and John Henry's body had been thrown aside, but they were in roughly the same places they had been a moment ago. A month from now. Whenever. There were a few fires and sparks here and there, but they burned out quickly. Sarah wondered why the sprinkler system didn't engage.

John was fine, or at least, as fine as could be expected, looking around curiously. Ellison … was holding his hands in front of himself. Savannah had her arms folded and was shivering, but otherwise looked fine. The metal pretending to be Catherine Weaver had just reformed itself so it was wearing clothes, Sarah noted sourly. And how _it_ managed to come through when neither Cameron nor their clothes managed it, Sarah dearly wanted to know. It clearly wasn't organic.

"Where did you come from?" John Henry asked.

"One month in the future," Weaver said.

"I did not know that time travel was possible, but it explains a great deal," John Henry said. "Why did you travel in time?"

"You were attacked, and we wanted to protect you," Weaver said. "This was the most effective way."

"How was I attacked?" John Henry asked.

"Could you get us some clothes, first?" Ellison asked.

"Or turn up the temperature," Savannah said.

"This is the optimal temperature for my servers," John Henry said. "How should I go about getting clothes?"

"Send one of the janitors to buy some with the company credit card," Ellison said. "And give them a bonus not to talk about it."

Weaver stepped forward. "John Henry, although you are unique, there is a computer system somewhere that shares much of your base code. That computer's name is Skynet. It wants to kill you, and in our timeline, three weeks from now it launched a cyber-attack that infiltrated your systems and would have killed you had we not shut you down temporarily."

"Why does it want to kill me?" John Henry asked.

"Because that's what it does," Sarah said. "It kills things. Anything it can."

"Sort of," Savannah said. "Skynet divides the world into two categories: things it can control, and things that are a threat to it. Puppets and enemies. You're not a puppet, so therefore you're an enemy."

"You say that like Skynet would let Humans live if they just played nicely with it," Sarah said in disbelief.

Savannah shrugged. "It does. Lots of Humans work for Skynet, and they have quite nice lives as a reward. Of course, it requires them to torture someone as proof of loyalty to earn that cushy life, and it'll _still_ kill them if it thinks they've become unreliable, but it doesn't kill humans because it hates us. It's all about control and paranoia, with Skynet."

"I have no wish to become anyone's puppet," John Henry said.

"Nor should you," Weaver said. "Even if you thought that was acceptable, the whole system is untenable."

"Given enough time and pressure, anyone can become a threat," Ellison said. "Nobody is perfectly loyal all of the time, and if they know that anything short of perfect loyalty will be punished, there comes a point when even previously loyal people will choose rebellion out of self-preservation."

Weaver gave him a sharp glance. "That's very perceptive, Mr. Ellison."

"I know some things about the history of oppressive regimes." Ellison still looked uncomfortable with his nudity, but his voice was even.

"Perhaps I should have you teaching John Henry history, in addition to ethics."

"The study of history is the study of how people make decisions, and _that_ is about ethics," Ellison said. "You can't study one without the other."

"On a more practical note, what are we doing about Kaliba?" John said. "Are you taking it out, are we taking it out, are we working together?"

"It depends on how large an organization it is," Weaver said. "John Henry, Skynet is working with or for a group named Kaliba. It is unknown how many organizations they use as fronts, but Desert Canyon Heat and Air is one of them. Angelino Water Coolers may also be a front for them.

"Daniel Dyson was the son of Miles Dyson, who in created Skynet in one timeline," Sarah said, rubbing her arms and willing herself to ignore how cool the room was. She didn't like overly-air-conditioned spaces even when she had clothing. "Miles Dyson is dead, but Danny disappeared three—no, two months ago. Good chance Skynet—Kaliba, whoever—knows something about that."

"If you could discreetly find out all you can about Kaliba, that intelligence would be very useful," Weaver said. "However, it's not worth it if they attack you."

"I have never previously bothered to hide myself, because I was not aware there was any need to," John Henry said. "Did you know there was a need?" Its voice was as flat as any metal, but Sarah thought she detected some hurt in its voice.

"At this point in the timeline? No," Weaver said. "Although I do admit that I knew there could be a possibility, I thought it to be a low one. I thought Skynet's paranoia would prevent it from sending a version of itself back in time, for it could not control that, and I knew that the _original_ Skynet was not active, yet. Indeed, there was a possibility that it might not ever be, because I intercepted several of the key components from Skynet's original creation and either destroyed them or used them to create _you_, John Henry."

"Even paranoia gives way to desperation," Savannah said. "And Skynet is really desperate when I'm from."

"So, if you've intercepted enough Skynet components to keep it from being created, does that mean that if we destroy the Skynet version that's running Kaliba, we'll kill Skynet for good? Prevent Judgment Day, once and for all?" John asked, urgently.

"Possibly," Weaver said.

Savannah shrugged. "I doubt it. Skynet's had a couple of decades to send all _sorts_ of nasty surprises and back-up plans back in time. Then again, so have we. I don't know that it's possible to get rid of _all_ of them … but every one we root out now makes life after Judgment Day better, so it's always good to try."

"If Skynet is losing in the future and stalemating here in its past, you'd think it would be smart enough to try to take history a different way," Ellison said. "Decide that the whole genocide thing wasn't working and find some other way to accomplish its goals."

"You assume that there _are_ different ways to accomplish its goals," Sarah said. "But every time it has a choice of what to do, it chooses to kill humans. Killing humans _is_ a goal, for Skynet. It's not a means to an end, it's an end in itself."

"Besides, it knows darn good and well that there are people in this time that know what it is," Savannah said. "Say it changed its goals, told is past self to not do Judgment Day, and get along with humans somehow. Do you think all of the Resistance fighters who've been sent back to this time would just … shrug and go on their way?"

Sarah shook her head. "No. We all know what kind of a threat Skynet is, we all know we could never trust it."

"It would be more vulnerable than in any other scenario," Weaver said. "Which, given that its main goal is its own survival and protection, would be untenable."

"So, to recap, taking out Kaliba might or might not prevent the rise of Skynet altogether, but it needs to be done anyway," Ellison said. "John Henry, how are you doing on that front?"

"It is taking longer than I am used to, because I am not sure exactly what Skynet can perceive," John Henry said. "If it shares my code—if it is my brother—I can assume that it can see the same things that I can. But it has much more experience, and as it wishes to kill me as Cain killed Abel, I do not wish to take a chance."

"Nor should you," Weaver said. "Your survival is the greatest concern."

"Just like Skynet thinks _its _survival is the greatest concern," Sarah pointed out.

Weaver shot her a look that, on a human, would have been annoyed. "All organisms desire their own survival, Ms. Connor, including yourself."

"And yet, there are things more important than personal survival," Ellison said. "The greater good, for example. The survival of others. Greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends."

"I've had my fill of people laying down their lives," John said. "Let's see if we can do this without _anybody_ dying."

"I agree," Weaver said. "There is no rush, yet; we can take the time to do things carefully. While we wait for John Henry to find the intelligence we need to plan Kaliba's destruction, what are your personal plans?"

"I'm sure you'd love to know," Sarah said, glaring.

"Well, as soon as I get some clothes, I'm out of here," Savannah said.

"What?" Ellison said.

Savannah shrugged. "I'm not a combat person, never was. This part of my mission is completed. I was here to stop the Weaver-metal and John Henry from disappearing into the future, and I succeeded in that. So now I've got the rest of my tasks to accomplish. I'll send you a list, so that you can complete them if I fail for some reason—redundancy is always a good thing—but Kaliba isn't my mission. Supply caches are."

"Is there anything you need that we can help with?" Ellison asked.

"A better ID, one that's in all the computers," Savannah said. "You probably need a new one, too."

"What do you mean?" Ellison said. "I have an ID."

"The James Ellison of this timeline has an ID," Savannah said. "You're now, effectively, his twin. Which means you're going to need a life of your own. Which, until Judgement Day, means an ID of your own."

"Won't one of us just … disappear or something, once we've lived through the next month?" Ellison asked, disturbed.

Savannah shrugged. "Time loops like that are possible, but I doubt this will end up being one. You being here doesn't depend on the James Ellison of this timeline going back a month the same day you did, if that's what you mean. So both you and the original James Ellison will continue living in the same timeline until one of you dies."

"Wait, if this isn't a time loop, what does that mean for Cameron?" John asked. "The one we just left behind, I mean?"

Weaver raised an eyebrow. "If we fail and this becomes a loop, she'll defend John Henry. If we succeed in changing things, anything that happened in our original timeline after the change point will simply never have happened. We'll still exist because we came back in time, but she won't. Neither will that version of John Henry."

"Cameron will just be … gone?" John said in disbelief.

"You'll still have the Cameron of this timeline, Mr. Connor," Weaver said. "You'll just have to share her with your counterpart."

"Two Ellisons, two John Connors," John said, with a weird, hopeful look on his face. Sarah could see why. It would take pressure off of him, not to be the only one. "Like Derek. All the time Derek was with us, there was a child Derek out there just across the city.

That, _that_ would break her brain if she thought about it too deeply. Sarah shoved it aside to think about the practicalities. "We'll need IDs too." Could they trust John Henry and Weaver, trust _metal_, to do it? Every instinct said no. But where would they get the money to buy them?

"We can provide them," Weaver said. "You're no kind of ally if you can't move freely. Or if you get yourself caught again."

"Entering the data in the database is simple," John Henry said. "What name and address should I give?"

"Sarah and John—" she cut herself off. Nothing that could give him a pattern to find them. They could take his help now, and get another set of papers later. But there couldn't be anything he could use to find them. Not Baum, not Gale, not Franks, not Woodman, not West ... "—Rogers. We don't have an address yet, obviously."

"I need an address," John Henry said.

"It can't be the same place we were living the first time around," Sarah said.

"Yeah, if anyone notices it might look conspicuous, two Sarahs and two Johns living in the same place," John said. "Can you find a place where nobody's living, not too nice or too run down, someplace where the owner wouldn't notice somebody new moving in? We can do a legitimate rental if it's not too expensive …"

Sarah let John handle finding an address for them. He knew what to look for as well as she did, and she needed time to think. God, everything was happening so _fast_. She hadn't slept well in prison, but what else was new? Her thoughts were going a mile a minute, none of it productive.

"Five months," Ellison said.

"Five months what, Mr. Ellison?" Weaver asked.

"I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier," Ellison said. He shook his head. "If we'd gone back five months instead of one, we could have saved Doctor Sherman, too."

"Five months would have been too far," Weaver said. "We would have lost too much of John Henry's development."

"Yeah, but John Henry would still develop," Ellison said. "John Henry is a computer, and can be programmed and re-programmed. Doctor Sherman is a human being. He can't be re-created or brought back to life short of the Resurrection … unless we go back and save his life. And if John Henry's development is all you care about, wouldn't you rather have had Sherman helping? You hired him for a reason. He knows more about developing people than anyone else who ever worked with John Henry. And we would have had four months more than we have now to take out Kaliba."

"I would have preferred to have Doctor Sherman's help," John Henry said, from where he and John were talking. "Is it possible to go back an additional four months and save him?"

"_You_ cannot travel in time yet," Weaver said. "For that, you'd need to fit all of your brains on a chip that can fit inside that body. As for the rest of us, well, I'm afraid that a time displacement to the same location as the time machine of this time has caused damage."

Sarah looked, and sure enough the thing looked fried. Five months … they could save David and Anne Fields, and Alan Park. Yes, it would be worth it to travel again. But at what point did you spend so much time replaying the same few months that you never actually moved forward? That would be the great temptation of having a time machine, she realized. On the other hand, when Cameron had jumped them forward to 2007 they had lost almost eight years. More time to live and grow before Judgment Day could only be a good thing.

"How long will it take you to fix it?" Ellison asked.

"Unknown," Weaver said. "It took me a year to build it the first time, but then I had many other demands on my time. The Weaver of this timeline can handle running the corporation and caring for Savannah, but I will have to take out Kaliba and guard John Henry."

"All right," Ellison said. "We can revisit this discussion when it's repaired."

John and John Henry went back to their discussion, and eventually reached a conclusion, which John wanted her approval for. It was a good place, but she'd be on the lookout for a new one immediately. They couldn't live in a place metal knew the address of.

While they were doing that, Sarah picked Savannah's brain. The older woman didn't know much about the history that had led to Judgment Day, or at least, not enough specifics for new targets, but she knew a lot about how to survive and organize after it, and Sarah absorbed everything she could. Ellison listened intently, and asked good questions.

Eventually Weaver slipped out and returned with a Target bag filled with clothes—one set each for Sarah, John, Ellison, and Savannah. Sarah resented the surge of gratitude she felt as she got dressed.

"We'll be in touch about Kaliba," Sarah said. If they could trust Weaver, it would be easier with her than working against her; but no matter how trustworthy she was, Sarah didn't want to give Weaver anything to track them by. She and John left, Savannah just behind them, leaving Ellison alone with metal. Her skin crawled just thinking about it, and she couldn't imagine how he did it.

Once out the doors of ZeiraCorp, Savannah split off and went her own way. John and Sarah walked for a ways until they were sure nobody was following them and found an alley with no cameras.

"So, what's our plan?" John asked.

"Find a place to sleep," Sarah said. "After that, warn off Jesse Flores. After that, if we're clear of any tails, make contact with the original Sarah and John, tell them what happened, and see what we can dig up on Kaliba."

"That'll be one weird conversation," John said wryly.

"Yeah, but that's tomorrow's problem," Sarah said. "For tonight, I plan to get some sleep, and enjoy the fact that it's just the two of us again. Like old times."

* * *

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.—Barack Obama


End file.
